OGM against world famine

Extract from a ‘statement’
published in Transgenic Plants for
Food Security in the Context of Development. NewBiotechnology Vol. 27/5 (2010)
445-718

A Study Week on the subject of ‘Transgenic Plants for Food Security in
the Context of Development’ was held under the sponsorship of the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences at its headquarters in the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican
from 15 to 19 May 2009. During the course of the meeting, we surveyed recent
advances in the scientific understanding of novel varieties of genetically
engineered (GE) plants, as well as the social conditions under which GE
technology could be made available for the improvement of agriculture in
general and for the benefit of the poor and vulnerable in particular.

Main Scientific Conclusions

We reaffirm the principal conclusions of the Study-Document on the Use
of ‘“Genetically Modified Food Plants” to Combat Hunger in the World’, issued
at the end of the Jubilee Plenary Session on ‘Science and the Future of
Mankind’, 10-13 November 2000. Summarised and updated, these include:

More than 1 billion of the
world population of 6.8 billion people are currently undernourished, a condition
that urgently requires the development of new agricultural systems and
technologies.

The expected addition of 2-2.5
billion people to reach a total of approximately 9 billion people by 2050 adds
urgency to this problem.

The predicted consequences of
climate change and associated decreases in the availability of water for
agriculture will also affect our ability to feed the increased world
population.

Agriculture as currently
practised is unsustainable, evidenced by the massive loss of topsoil and
unacceptably high applications of pesticides throughout most of the world.

The appropriate application of
GE and other modern molecular techniques in agriculture is contributing toward
addressing some of these challenges.

There is nothing intrinsic
about the use of GE technologies for crop improvement that would cause the
plants themselves or the resulting food products to be unsafe.

The scientific community
should be responsible for research and development (R&D) leading to
advances in agricultural productivity, and should also endeavour to see that
the benefits associated with such advances accrue to the benefit of the poor as
well as to those in developed countries who currently enjoy relatively high
standards of living.

Special efforts should be made
to provide poor farmers in the developing world with access to improved GE crop
varieties adapted to their local conditions.

Research to develop such
improved crops should pay particular attention to local needs and crop
varieties and to the capacity of each country to adapt its traditions, social
heritage and administrative practices to achieve the successful introduction of
GE crops.

Further Evidence

Since the preparation of that earlier study document, evidence that has
been subjected to high standards of peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny, as well
as a vast amount of real-world experience, has accumulated about the
development, application and effects of GE technology. During our study-week we
reviewed this evidence and arrived at the following conclusions:

GE technology, used appropriately and responsibly, can in many
circumstances make essential contributions to agricultural productivity by crop
improvement. These improvements are needed around the world to help improve the
sustainability and productivity of agriculture.

The genetic improvement of crop plants represents a long and seamless continuum of progressively more precise and predictable
techniques.

The benefits have already been of major significance in countries such
as the U.S., Argentina, India, China and Brazil, where GE crops are widely
grown.

They also can be of major significance for resource-poor farmers and vulnerable members of poor farming communities, especially women and children.

The introduction of resistance to environmentally benign, inexpensive
herbicides is the most widely used GE trait. It has increased yields per
hectare, replaced back-breaking manual weeding This technology could be
especially useful to farmers in the developing world who, for reasons of age or
disease, cannot engage in traditional manual weed control.

GE technology can combat
nutritional deficiencies through modification that provides essential
micro-nutrients. Studies of provitamin A-biofortified ‘Golden Rice’ have shown
that standard daily diets containing this biofortified rice would be sufficient
to prevent vitamin A deficiency.

The application of GE technology to insect resistance has led to a
reduction in the use of chemical insecticides, lowering the cost of some
agricultural inputs and improving the health of agricultural workers.

The predicted impact of
climate change reinforces the need to use GE coupled with other breeding
techniques appropriately and purposively, so that traits such as drought
resistance and flooding tolerance are incorporated into the major food crops as
quickly as possible.

GE technology has already
raised crop yields of poor farmers and there is evidence of its generating
increased income and employment that would not otherwise have taken place.

Costly regulatory
oversight of GE technology needs to become scientifically defensible and risk-based.
This means that regulation should be based upon the particular traits of a new
plant variety rather than the technological means used to produce it.

Risk assessments
must consider not only the potential risks of the use of a new plant variety,
but also the risks of alternatives if that particular variety is not made
available.

Significant
public-sector efforts are currently underway to produce genetically improved
varieties or lines of cassava, sweet potatoes, rice, maize, bananas, sorghum,
and other major tropical crops that will be of direct benefit to the poor.
These efforts should be strongly encouraged.

The magnitude of
the challenges facing the world’s poor and undernourished must be addressed as
a matter of urgency. Every year nutritional deficiencies cause preventable
illness and death. In this context, forgone benefits are lost forever.

Given these
scientific findings, there is a moral imperative to make the benefits of GE
technology available on a larger scale to poor and vulnerable populations who
want them and on terms that will enable them to raise their standards of
living, improve their health and protect their environments.

In general, the application of GE technology has demonstrated its
importance for improving agricultural productivity throughout the world, but it
is still only one part of what must be a multifaceted strategy. As the Holy
Father Benedict XVI has observed: ‘it could be useful to consider the new
possibilities that are opening up through proper use of traditional as well as
innovative farming techniques, always assuming that these have been judged,
after sufficient testing, to be appropriate, respectful of the environment and
attentive to the needs of the most deprived peoples’. (Caritas in veritate, § 27). Nevertheless, we
recognise that not all developments of GE technology will realise their
original promise, as happens with any technology. We must continue to evaluate
the potential contribution of all appropriate technologies, which together with
conventional plant breeding and additional strategies must be used to improve
food security and alleviate poverty for future generations. (John Paul II, Address to the Jubilee of the Agricultural
World, 11 November 2000). Many of them can be used synergistically with GE
technologies. Strategies include the retention of topsoil through no-till and
other conservation practices, the appropriate application of fertilizers, the
development of new kinds of fertilizers and environmentally friendly
agrochemicals, water conservation, integrated pest management, conservation of
genetic diversity, the adoption of new kinds of crops where appropriate and
improving existing crops (particularly ‘orphan crops’ for wider use through
public-private investment and partnerships. Other factors of vital importance
to increasing food security of particular importance to resource-poor countries
include improvements in infrastructure (transport, electricity supply and
storage facilities), capacity building by way of the provision of knowledgeable
and impartial advice to farmers about seed choice through local extension
services, the development of fair systems of finance and insurance, and the
licensing of proprietary technology. However, awareness that there is no single
solution to the problem of poverty and discrimination against the poor in many
regions should not prevent our use of GE varieties of crops where they can make
appropriate contributions to an overall solution.